Yes, we will.
I'd like to begin by thanking all the honourable members for inviting the Métis National Council to appear before you today.
The Métis National Council represents the Métis Nation at the national level. It speaks on behalf of the entire Métis Nation. Women account for 50.6% of all Métis in the Métis homeland region of Canada, which includes the provinces of Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia. The 1996 census reveals that altogether there were a little over 170,000 Métis women in our homeland.
Our population is very youthful, with 25% of Métis women in the homeland region under 15 years old and 26% between the ages of 15 and 29. In other words, the majority of our Métis women are children and youth.
We come before you today largely to talk about their future. Many of us have made career choices imposed by our times and circumstances. Although we've seen rapid change in gender-based conceptions of female roles and occupations in our own lifetime, the task is far from complete and the results are far from satisfactory. Our hope is that through the work of this committee and the persistent efforts of our leaders in industry and government, we will create a more level playing field for aboriginal women in the Canadian labour market and a better, more promising future for our young Métis women.
It's important to put to rest one major misconception about Métis and other aboriginal women. It's a belief that we're not in the workforce. In fact when we look at it, the labour force participation rates of Métis women 15 years and older in 2006 was about 67%, which is above average for women generally in the homeland region. Overall, 62.8% of women are in the workforce. Even after adjusting for differences in age and profiles between Métis and the general population, Métis female participation rates are very close to the equivalent rates in the general population. Métis women are already integrated into the Canadian economy and it's a fiction to maintain otherwise.
The simple fact of the matter is that the economic integration has not led to equitable benefits. Our unemployment rates remain significantly high, and therefore the proportion of our working age population with a job is also lower than for the general population. But nothing illustrates the disparities between Métis women and the general population better than employment income.
The committee should be aware that based on the 2006 census, the average employment income of an adult male in Canada was $45,588 in 2005. Male incomes are really what we have to compare ourselves to if we are looking at gender equality. Unfortunately, we have a long way to go as far as the income of Métis women is concerned. We are at a mere $23,253 per year, which is 48.8% less than mainstream males.
Our submission contains a table that provides information on the differential between male and Métis female employment income for each of the provinces within the Métis homeland. It is interesting to find that the largest differential exists in Alberta. The province had a booming economy at the time of our last census, and boasted the highest employment income of any province in Canada. But the women were just totally bypassed. Our average income in Alberta was still only at $24,060 a year, so we weren't in any better shape in Alberta than we were anywhere else in the homeland as far as our income rates go.
There are also disparities in the income of Métis women relative to Métis men. The average employment income of a woman is also lower than women in the general population by about 20% in the provinces of Ontario and Alberta. In Manitoba and Saskatchewan it's about 15% lower.
It's not our intention to bombard you with statistics. If the committee wants any more information on this matter we'd be happy to supply you with all the data we have.
Although Métis women participate fully in the Canadian economy, on average we have been relegated to lower-paying jobs. The question is why, and what we can do about it. There are a huge number of factors at play here. We do not pretend to have all the answers for you today.
There's no question the gender bias in occupational choice and hiring decisions is fundamental to understanding any differential between working men and women. High dropout rates and poor education attainment levels are also factors in explaining poor employment outcomes. Persistent discrimination and stereotyping against women and aboriginal people, though hard to measure, also no doubt contribute to the raising of the bar so high that few make it to the top.
However, fundamentally we find that Métis women tend to find employment in the more menial, less remunerative occupations within occupational sectors occupied by women. Métis women are generally drawn to the same types of occupations as women in the general population. We show a significantly higher propensity for work in sales and service occupations, which account for 39% of the Métis in the experienced workforce, compared with only 30% of women in the general population.
Within the Métis homeland, our occupational profile follows a pattern common to all women, with concentrations in the service sector, in occupations such as retail sales, health, education, government, and administration. A detailed occupational breakdown would show that, compared with women in the general population, Métis women tend to congregate in lower-paying jobs within these sectors.